Barry Sonnenfeld's long-awaited follow-up to his 1997 sci-fi comedy
blockbuster Men In Black is apparently getting some bad
press for being "more of the same." I'm not sure what
the critics are expectingMen In Black II is more
of the same, and that's why it's so entertaining. Reuniting Will
Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, one of the best onscreen duos since
Matthau & Lemmon, MIBII does retrace some steps through
New York City's alien crime community, but it introduces enough
new material to be worth the ticket price, and features a rather
amusing role reversal between the two agents, with Agent J (Smith)
showing the former Agent K (Jones) around the halls of the top-secret
MIB facility after K had his memory erased at the end of the first
film. Director Sonnenfeld, who spent the 1980s as a cinematographer
and then abruptly switched to directing in 1991, has had his share
of hits (Get Shorty, Big Trouble)
and misses (Wild Wild West),
but generally maintains the witty tone for a worthy continuation
of the established MIB story.

Written by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, based on the comic
book story by Lowell Cunningham, the plot involves an evil, wormy
creature called Serleena who comes to Earth (assuming the shape
of Lara Flynn Boyle) and, with the help of a two-headed buffoon
named Scrad (Johnny Knoxville, playing both heads), attempts to
find the mysterious Light Of Zartha, which will apparently give
her power over the entire universe. As soon as she shows up, MIB
Chief Zed (Rip Torn) realizes they'll have to call the legendary
Agent K out of retirement because he's the only one who knows
where the Light is. K's former partner J, who has been having
trouble finding a new associate anyway, must travel to a rural
town in Massachusetts (where K works as postmaster) and convince
him to return to his old line of work. Not to mention restore
his entire memory.

What made Men In Black work was the exquisite partnership
of its two leads, along with a nice mix of cool effects and a
multitude of memorable alien characters, created with every medium
from rubber masks to puppetry to computer graphics. The fact that
Sonnenfeld has chosen not to mess with a good thing doesn't necessarily
mean he's out of ideas, but the formula can't sustain itself indefinitely.
Among the new aspects of this film are the replacement of female
lead Linda Fiorentino (who reportedly won her MIB role
from director Sonnenfeld in a poker gameperhaps she lost
this time) with the fresh-faced Rosario Dawson, and some surprising
cameos by the likes of Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson, and Sonnenfeld
himself. Also present is Patrick Warburton in a brief but amusing
role as J's would-be partner, T. Returning from the first film
are Tony Shalhoub as the gritty pawn shop owner who seems to have
an unlimited supply of replacement heads, and Frank the dog (voiced
by Tim Blaney), whose role has been expanded greatly for the sequel.

Smith and Jones perform together as smoothly as if they never
left the studio, and the script sparkles with very much the same
fluorescence. Villainess Boyle pales in comparison to MIB's
Vincent D'Onofrio; she basically plays the same character she
plays on The Practice, except she's traded in the severe
ponytail for a full mane of wavy black hairand she has thousands
of worms coming out of her. Oh, wait, she does have that on The
Practice. While the film's ending doesn't overtly hint at
the possibility of future installments, it certainly doesn't rule
them out, either. I imagine the answer to that will be determined
by that most venerated of Hollywood formulas, the cha-ching factor.
****